Something I’m always keen on doing in a lot of my work is trying to make things very sort of hands on. I suppose it comes from growing up with stuff that had lots of knobs and switches that you could twist and play with. It just makes you want to reach out and touch. And so while I love digital technology and all that it allows you to do, I still miss the very physical nature of those tactial interfaces. Take digital music. I love iTunes. I love the fact I can have my entire music collection in one place and arrange it however I want. I love how you can take it with you on your iPod. But I also love old school hi-fi. The wood, the smell and all those switches! So i brought the 2 worlds together - retro amplifier with it’s super warm sound coupled with the ease of use of an iPod/iTunes. After digging around Ebay I got myself a 35 year old Bang & Olufsen Beomaster 1000 and then a Beogram 1000 for playing vinyl. Now the plan is to stream iTunes to the amp via Airtunes - when eventually a shop on planet Earth actually has them in stock!
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This is a great idea…I’m a great believer in the benefits of both digital and analogue, not just in music but in any creative endeavour…There’s room for both, and hopefully always will be. I’d hate to see everything digitized. There’s a human element that somehow I like to believe will always influence what we do and how we behave or react…we are not robots…yet…
John / 01/10/2004